The Science/Science News Thread.

So I tried to change the title of the gene manipulation article thread to a catch-all science thread, but it didn't work. Here is a place to talk about science and science news. Why? Because I want a science news thread and clearly none of you are going to buy me one.

3-D Holography Breakthrough: Erase And Rewrite In Minutes
ScienceDaily (Feb. 6, 2008) — University of Arizona optical scientists have broken a technological barrier by making three-dimensional holographic displays that can be erased and rewritten in a matter of minutes.

The holographic displays -- which are viewed without special eyewear -- are the first updatable three-dimensional displays with memory ever to be developed, making them ideal tools for medical, industrial and military applications that require "situational awareness."

"This is a new type of device, nothing like the tiny hologram of a dove on your credit card," UA optical sciences professor Nasser Peyghambarian said. "The hologram on your credit card is printed permanently. You cannot erase the image and replace it with an entirely new three-dimensional picture."
"Holography has been around for decades, but holographic displays are really one of the first practical applications of the technique," UA optical scientist Savas Tay said.

Dynamic hologram displays could be made into devices that help surgeons track progress during lengthy and complex brain surgeries, show airline or fighter pilots any hazards within their entire surrounding airspace, or give emergency response teams nearly real-time views of fast-changing flood or traffic problems, for example.

And no one yet knows where the advertising and entertainment industries will go with possible applications, Peyghambarian said. "Imagine that when you walk into the supermarket or department store, you could see a large, dynamic, three-dimensional product display," he said. It would be an attention-grabber.

Tay, Peyghambarian, their colleagues from the UA College of Optical Sciences and collaborators from Nitto Denko Technical Corp., which is an Oceanside, Calif., subsidiary of Nitto Denko, Japan, report on the research in the Feb. 7 issue of the journal Nature.
Their device basically consists of a special plastic film sandwiched between two pieces of glass, each coated with a transparent electrode. The images are "written" into the light-sensitive plastic, called a photorefractive polymer, using laser beams and an externally applied electric field. The scientists take pictures of an object or scene from many two-dimensional perspectives as they scan their object, and the holographic display assembles the two-dimensional perspectives into a three-dimensional picture.

The Air Force Office of Scientific Research, which has funded Peyghambarian's team to develop updatable holographic displays, has used holographic displays in the past. But those displays have been static. They did not allow erasing and updating of the images. The new holographic display can show a new image every few minutes.
The four-inch by four-inch prototype display that Peyghambarian, Tay and their colleagues created now comes only in red, but the researchers see no problem with developing much larger displays in full color. They next will make one-foot by one-foot displays, then three-foot by three-foot displays.
"We use highly efficient, low-cost recording materials capable of very large sizes, which is very important for life-size, realistic 3D displays," Peyghambarian said. "We can record complete scenes or objects within three minutes and can store them for three hours."
The researchers also are working to write images even faster using pulsed lasers.

"If you can write faster with a pulsed laser, then you can write larger holograms in the same amount of time it now takes to write smaller ones," Tay said. "We envision this to be a life-size hologram. We could, for example, display an image of a whole human that would be the same size as the actual person."
Tay emphasized how important updatable holographic displays could be for medicine.
"Three-dimensional imaging techniques are already commonly used in medicine, for example, in MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) or CAT scan (Computerized Axial Tomography) techniques," Tay said. "However, the huge amount of data that is created in three dimensions is still being displayed on two-dimensional devices, either on a computer screen or on a piece of paper. A great amount of data is lost by displaying it this way. So I think when we develop larger, full-color 3D holograms, every hospital in the world will want one."

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

The last science class I took in school was Honors Chem my sophomore year of high school. The class was taught by the water polo coach. I got a 4 out of 75 on one of the tests, and I thought I was going to get a 0.

I have to take a science class in college, but I'm waiting until they offer Physics for Poets.

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

Originally Posted by full on idle

Didn't you already do this once

...

Originally Posted by Me, just a minute ago. Scroll up.

So I tried to change the title of the gene manipulation article thread to a catch-all science thread, but it didn't work. Here is a place to talk about science and science news. Why? Because I want a science news thread and clearly none of you are going to buy me one.

Tapping this power source is not a new idea and has been exploited in everyday devices such as wind-up radios and self-winding watches.

The US defence research agency Darpa has a long-standing project to tap energy from "heel-strike" generators implanted in soldier's boots and powered through the pumping motion of a footstep.

And in 2005, US scientists showed off an energy-harvesting backpack which used a suspended load to convert movement into electrical energy.

However, heel-strike devices generate relatively little energy whilst people using the backpack have to bear the burden of carrying the bag.

"It requires a relatively heavy load - around 38kg - to get a substantial amount of power," said Dr Donelan.

Simulations showed that a soldier carrying the pack and walking at a relatively brisk pace could generate around 7.4 watts of power. "It's about the same amount of power as [the knee braces] produce," said Dr Donelan.
South African amputee sprinter Oscar Pistorius
The technology could be used to make "smart prosthetics"
Kit list

The team believes the new device could have many uses.

"I think the early adopters will be people whose lives depend on portable power," he told BBC News.

"On the medical front, portable power is used by those who have amputated limbs to charge their powered prosthetic limbs," he said.

However, Dr Art Kuo at the University of Michigan does not believe it will be simply a case of strapping the device on to an existing prosthetic.

"It would probably involve building a new [prosthetic] knee that uses some existing ideas and then also tries to harvest energy using these principles," he said.

The team also hope the device could be useful for people who have suffered a stroke or spinal chord injury who wear an "exoskeleton" to help them move.

"The current and future emphasis is on powered exoskeletons," said Dr Donelan.

Soldiers may also benefit from wearing the knee brace to power the multitude of devices they now carry ,such as night vision goggles and GPS.

"They treat batteries like they treat food and water - they are so essential to what they do," he said.

Dr Donelan has now set up a spin-out company to exploit the technology and believes it will eventually be possible to develop a small device that can be fitted internally across different joints.

However, in the short term he has his sights set on a light weight, slim-line version of the knee brace.

"That's about 18 months away, so it's not science fiction far in the future stuff," he said.

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

Originally Posted by bballarl

The last science class I took in school was Honors Chem my sophomore year of high school. The class was taught by the water polo coach. I got a 4 out of 75 on one of the tests, and I thought I was going to get a 0.

I have to take a science class in college, but I'm waiting until they offer Physics for Poets.

You can ask questions like "Does the red planet burn like the crimson eye of Cerberus?"

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

The applications here are amazing. They could be put on bicycles (or in a way that they benefit from a human riding a bike) like the old-fashioned generator light (the way they are on stationary bikes sometimes, like the phone charger at Coachella), and you could charge your electronics while riding around town. It wouldn't take as long to get where you're going, but there are still plenty of revolutions per mile to keep up the energy. The new technology would be an incentive for people to do things like bike more. Any old fool can put something on a car charger, but the gadget-loving set would be all over this.

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

Originally Posted by theburiedlife

Harvest the power of kneecaps!

This article reminded of another article I read in a magazine while waiting in line at Whole Foods. It was about a dance club in Europe somewhere that was able to generate most of the power for the club from the people on the dance floor. Too cool. If there was a way to harvest the energy at elementary schools and junior high schools, you could probably provide power to the whole neighborhood.

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

There's a way, but it involves using the children to power the furnace. I don't know that parents would be so into it when their children started disappearing one by one, regardless of how bright their lights are.

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

I just googled it:

'Green' nightclub plans unveiled

A new nightclub in the Netherlands plans to offer clubbers an environmentally-friendly night out - in part by having them power the place through their dancing.
Plans for the Sustainable Dance Club in Rotterdam have officially been launched, detailing, amongst other things, a special dancefloor which converts the movement of the dancers into electricity.

Other methods of making the club "greener" include rainwater toilets, biological beer, and walls which change colour according to the heat generated inside the club, without using any electricity.

Professor Han Brezet of Delft University of Technology - which is acting as technical adviser to the project - told BBC World Service's Culture Shock programme that he had been overwhelmed by the interest when the plans were announced at a "premiere" event.

"When we had the premiere of the dance club, we expected 200 people to come - but we had to close the door early," he said.

"I'm surprised - but here in Rotterdam a new movement is coming up. It's the creative city, involving a sub-culture wanting to be sustainable but in a practical way."

Piezoelectricity

How the dancefloor will ultimately work is yet to be decided, professor Brezet added, although he stressed it has attracted a great deal of interest.

"[It could be] to dance on the floor and you energise an electrical generator - but it could also be pneumatic, where you dance on some fabric and the air is pumped out and back again, like a pair of bellows," he said.
"Later on, you can use the pressurised air for micro-turbine and micro-generators."

But he added that in the long term, the club would have a special floor surface made of crystals that generate electricity in response to being stepped on - known as piezoelectricity.

"Mainly we are looking at people dancing - so it's about human power, human weight - what we call the 'jump dancing' to try to energise the floor and get electricity out of that," he said.

However, he warned that this would be "very costly".

Meanwhile, he added that he was hopeful some of the principles of the Sustainable Dance Club could be taken and applied elsewhere.

"In pop clubs, there is not so much attention on acoustics," he said.

"Design for efficient acoustics could reduce the power needed on stage."

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

Originally Posted by Hannahrain

There's a way, but it involves using the children to power the furnace. I don't know that parents would be so into it when their children started disappearing one by one, regardless of how bright their lights are.

There's a few kids that I could recommend, and sadly their parents might back me.

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

It seems to me people keep trying to invent perpetual motion machines, and keep failing.

Closest thing.

This fun little guy has methylene chloride in his arse, which evaporates at around room temperature and rises up to his head, making him top-heavy. He pitches forward into water, and his head (made of felt) soaks up the water and cools the methylene chloride, making it drain back down to the bottom and righting the posture, ready to start over again. Technically it is perpetual motion, although it relies on outside elements and is not a closed system.

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

We learned about this in Biochem class yesterday, it's about RatBots. It's pretty cool, in the article here they just state that they activate the "reward" center of the brain but they are actually just inducing orgasm/sexualpleasure when the rat goes in the right directionhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1961798.stm

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

Enlarge Image
A sea-going robotic glider that harvests heat energy from the ocean has been tested by US scientists.

The yellow, torpedo-shaped machine has been combing the depths of seas around the Caribbean since December 2007.

The team who developed the autonomous vehicle say it has covered "thousands of kilometres" during the tests.

Without the need for batteries, the team believe the glider could undertake oceanographic surveys for up to six months at a time.

"We are tapping a virtually unlimited energy source for propulsion," said Dave Fratantoni of the Wood's Hole Oceanographic Institute (WHOi).

But Steve McPhail, an expert in autonomous underwater vehicles at the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), Southampton said the machine would not totally do-away with batteries.

"You still need to provide power for the sensors, for the data-logging system and for the satellite communications system to get the data back," he said.

As a result, the vehicle would have to return to a ship or shore intermittently to recharge it's batteries.

"It's always a trade off between the power used for the propulsion system and the power used for the sensors," said Mr McPhail.

Ocean network

Oceanographers are increasingly looking at ways to study the oceans over long periods of time and in real-time.

Rapid
Researchers wired the Atlantic in 2004 for the Rapid project

This is key for understanding natural variations in circulation, for example, and to monitor for any changes.

Already scientists have deployed large networks of sensors across the oceans

For example, in 2004, NOC researchers strung sets of instruments across the Atlantic to measure circulation patterns.

The Rapid project, as it was known, painted the first detailed picture of Atlantic Ocean currents and showed how they vary throughout the year.

Its successor - Rapid Watch - has just received £16m from the Natural Environment Research Council and will monitor the Gulf Stream until 2014.

Scientists are also in the process of wiring the Pacific.

One project, the Argo network, will consist of an array of 3000 floats strung out every 300km across the vast ocean.

Sensors on the floats will provide 100,000 temperature and salinity profiles every year.

Another network, the Monterey Accelerated Research System (Mars), will connect a research station in California with a sensor array deployed on the edge of Monterey Canyon, the deepest submarine canyon off the continental West Coast.

Lazy glide

The new vehicles could add to that knowledge by filling in the gaps between the sensors.

Thermal glider (WHOi)
The glider has been tested in the waters of the Virgin Islands

For example, it is proposed that Rapid Watch will use an armada of gliders alongside stationary sensors.

The machines are already used in oceanography and propel themselves through the ocean by changing their buoyancy to dive and surface. Wings generate lift and a vertical tail fin and rudder is used to steer.

The latest glider has been developed by Webb Research Corporation and WHOi.

It generates its energy for propulsion from the differences in temperature between warm surface waters and colder, deeper layers of the ocean.

Wax filled tubes inside the craft expand when it is gliding through warmer water. This heat is used to push oil from a bladder inside the hull to one outside, changing its buoyancy.

Cooling of the wax at depth reverses the cycle.

Since December 2007, the prototype machine has been crisscrossing a 4,000m-deep basin in the Virgin Islands of the Caribbean.

The machine traces a saw-tooth profile through the water column as it lazily glides through the ocean, surfacing periodically to fix their positions via GPS and to relay data back to base.

According to WHOi researchers the vehicle crossed the basin between St. Thomas and St Croix more than 20 times studying local currents

The eventual aim of the project is to deploy a fleet of vehicles to study much larger flows in the North Atlantic.

"Gliders can be put to work on tasks that humans wouldn't want to do or cannot do because of time and cost concerns," said Dr Fratantoni. "They can work around the clock in all weather conditions."

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

Originally Posted by Hannahrain

There's a way, but it involves using the children to power the furnace. I don't know that parents would be so into it when their children started disappearing one by one, regardless of how bright their lights are.

Lets hope they use orphanages, so we can still protect the family unit.

Re: The Science/Science News Thread.

First Proof that Evolution Can Work Faster Than Genetic EngineeringFor years, farmers have been growing genetically-engineered cotton plants that exude an insecticide known as Bt. But now, a pest called the bollworm moth has evolved a resistance to Bt -- and the altered bugs have already spread across part of the southern United States. This is the first-known example of bugs evolving resistance to an insecticide in the wild. It proves that natural selection can outrun genetic engineering in terms of its ability to transform a species quickly.